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Diane Wilson was recently sentenced to 120 days in a Victoria, Texas, county jail for hanging a banner from the tower of Dow Chemical's Seadrift facility in August 2002. The chemical tower she climbed was the same type associated with a 1991 Dow plant explosion in Seadrift that killed one worker, injured 34 others, with "shrapnel the size of cars" launched into the surrounding community. Newspapers reported that Dow self audits had been warning for twenty years that an accident like that was bound to happen. And it was not the first time. Although Diane climbed that tower after exhausting all possible avenues of trying to stop the toxic contamination of her beloved Texas Gulf where she had fished shrimp for so many years, another reason for that tower climb was to highlight another Dow accident that happened over twenty years ago. The banner she hung off that tower read, "Dow - Responsible for Bhopal" In Bhopal, India, over 20,000 people died in 1984 when Union Carbide, now Dow Chemical, neglected their facilities and precipitated the worst industrial "accident" the world has ever known. These same companies operate facilities in Texas.

Take action now! Tell Texas Governor Rick Perry to enforce toxics laws against Dow Chemical Corporation.

Diane Wilson is trying to prevent another tragedy from happening here in the United States. Texas is ranked one of the top five states with the highest toxic chemical releases. Dow Chemical is ranked one of the top five polluters in Calhoun County. Texas has a long history of allowing chemical companies to operate without being accountable to public health. Toxic pollution knows no distinctions of state or national boundaries. The chronic contamination issuing forth each day in Texas as well as the potential catastrophic poison in our air, water, and soil should another Dow accident happen, impacts the health and well being of us all.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is currently revising its penalty policy and this is an opportunity to push for greater accountability against polluters who break the law and who put our health at risk. Texas could require penalties against Dow and others for not complying with environmental laws. In this way, no facility will gain an economic benefit from breaking laws or gain an unfair competitive advantage over law-abiding facilities, while also serving as a deterrent to future lawbreakers.

Please stand up for clean air and clean water and restore the public's faith in this State's ailing enforcement of these efforts.

Read more about Diane Wilson and her struggle against Dow.

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